Enabling Employee Climate Action
The first International Employee Climate Action Day, coming up on 29 September 2026, will put a global spotlight on employees using their influence, ideas and energy to help their organisations become more sustainable. It is a great opportunity for change practitioners to take proactive steps to enable employee climate action.
The Employee Climate Action Network (ECAN), which is behind the day, highlights a significant gap between employees’ willingness to act and their ability to do so. Research shared by ECAN shows that 80% of employees are ready and willing to take climate action through their jobs, yet fewer than half feel able to take action. Meanwhile, 63% believe their organisations are not doing enough on climate change and sustainability.
For change practitioners, this should sound familiar. Having people who care about change is not the same as creating the conditions that enable them to act. That is where our profession can help.
ECAN’s Employee Resource Hub describes three different starting points for workplace climate action: Explorer, Learner and Champion. Wherever you currently sit, here are some practical ways change professionals can get involved.
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EXPLORE: What is already happening?
Start with your own workplace. Read your organisation’s sustainability strategy, annual report or sustainability report.
What commitments has it made? What are its most significant impacts? What targets have been set, and how is progress being measured?
No sustainability strategy at your company? Explore your professional associations and industry bodies to understand what is happening in your sector – sector-specific research, action plans, and case studies can help you understand the challenges and direction of travel.
Then ask a change question: What shifts in behaviour, capability, processes or culture will be needed to respond?
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LEARN: Who is already trying to make change happen?
Look around your organisation. Who is sponsoring, advocating for or already working on sustainability, and how could you help amplify or embed their efforts?
That might be your sustainability team. It might be environmental health and safety, diversity or social value teams. It might be a senior leader, a green team, sustainability committee or employee network.
Ask what they are trying to achieve, where they are encountering barriers and where your change skills could help.
For example, green-team members are often passionate volunteers but may never have been taught how to influence stakeholders, build sponsorship, communicate change or mobilise colleagues. Could you help them map stakeholders? Strengthen their case for change? Coach them to engage leaders? Help turn an awareness campaign into something that changes behaviour and becomes part of everyday practice?
Rather than simply asking employees to champion sustainability, we can help give them the skills and support to do it effectively – this is what we do every day.
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CHAMPION: What about the changes you already lead?
Every change project can have positive environmental and social impacts. It can also create negative, and often unintended, consequences. When planning your next change, ask:
- Could this change increase or reduce environmental or social impacts?
- Could we use this change to reinforce more sustainable behaviours or ways of working?
- Do we have the right people involved? Could bringing in a sustainability lead, subject-matter expert or external adviser strengthen the project team or its governance?
The Change Management Institute’s Sustainability in Change Guide can help practitioners bring this wider lens into their work. The Guide details how our change practice framework links to sustainability actions, while the supporting resource guide provides links to many leading global resources to support your work.
On 21st September, we will also mark the Guide’s first anniversary with our event, “What’s your Change Footprint”, where you can explore your project through a sustainability lens to understand the potential positive and negative environmental and social impacts of the work you do.
International Employee Climate Action Day is a useful prompt to consider how we can use our change skills to support employees who want to act – whether by understanding the sustainability context, strengthening the efforts already underway, or asking better questions in the changes we lead.
Find out more
- International Employee Climate Action Day – 29 September
Visit the website for event details, resources and more. - Institute Sustainability in Change Guide – a member exclusive resource
Access the exclusive 5-part guide to sustainability in our profession, including a real-world case study and resource guide.
- Sustainability in Change: What’s your Change Footprint? – virtual event on Monday 21st September
View the event details of our sustainability anniversary event which is open to members and non-members
How will you use your change skills to support employee climate action this September?
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